Ste,—I must disagree with your three correspondents regarding Mr. Chamberlain
and a Conservative betrayal. If they refer to his policy of "appeasement," he had no alternative. He had to reap what others had sown. Continual disarmament and a pacifist outlook on the part of the people forced him to it. The country's general acclamation and his reception in London after Munich showed the people's relief that, at any rate, time was gained and how right was his policy at the time. For some reason " appeasement " is now held in odium, yet it is the very policy we are now using with Japan. Today it gives us about three months ; it gave us twelve in 1939. Certain newspapers are conducting a campaign to get rid of the "Old Gang." They are bold now, they were not so bold two years ago. I am not belittling the new members of the Government, but I do not believe that they could have roused the country any more had not the Germans marched into Holland and Belgium at the time.
At least one new Minister was partly responsible for our unprepared. ness, because of his refusal to allow preparation for military service in another sphere of public life. Only one man can claim to have warned the country to rearm that man is Mr. Churchill—a Conservs. tive. Only one man is blindly followed by thinking men and women, that man is Mr. Churchill—a Conservative.—Yours faithfully, Hollin Brigg, Holmbridge, Huddersfield. JOHN BARBER.
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